Red Roses
by jannelie
Summary: After years, Erza visits the Tower of Heaven and is met with an unexpected surprise. Jerza.


**A/N: Tumblr prompt. Enjoyyy ;)**

**Prompt: After years, Erza visits the Tower of Heaven and is met with an unexpected surprise.**

**Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and all of it's characters.**

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**Red Roses**

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The whole time through, the expression on her face was nothing short of regretful.

She began to approach the sandy shore of the forbidden area in 3 hours time –what should have been a long while actually felt like a mere 30 minutes.

The Mage hadn't expected to arrive so quickly.

Her eyes trailed solemnly from the deformed top of the structure all the way to the dirty bottom. What was left of the Etherion encrusted lightly over the destroyed architecture, resulting in light blue crystals of magic peppering over the hard surface. She didn't wish to be there, but she couldn't help but visit for the sole purpose of wanting to take part in respecting her loved ones– the ones who had perished on this godforsaken island.

Erza jumped from the wooden boat, and reached for a bag that was placed to the side of the transportation. The small mound was slung over her shoulders as she pulled the boat further into the land to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. With one slick movement she dusted off her hands of any residue or dirt from the wood and took one glance inside her small purse.

She searched for any sign of death.

Her mouth exerted a sigh of relief; the bouquet of roses were still intact and still vibrant with a gorgeous shade of red.

She felt her heart race nervously at the sight before her. Her intentions were to at least drop off the flowers and stay for an hour or so but now she didn't know what to expect of herself. Stepping into this piece of her past was almost nerve wracking. It was a part of her that left her scarred, physically and emotionally.

Would she break down in tears like before, or would she stand up to it? Erza wouldn't know.

Slowly, the young wizard began the path across the cold sand. The wind blew at her greatly; it looked like it was going to rain by the amount of gray colored clouds above her. Erza sighed. In an instant she requipped a black umbrella in her hands and popped it open over her.

"How am I going to get up there?" She wondered. The R-system was much shorter than what it used to be because of the explosion, but judging from the damage it would be difficult to get up to the top. Her feet wandered around for a bit trying to figure out how she was going to manage, when out of the corners of her eyes, she spotted a rusty staircase running from the side of the tower. Quickly she ran to the spot and scanned it. It _seemed_ sturdy and strong enough for her to travel up them. There was gritty sand and some rocks scattered over each step but overall it appeared to be fine.

Erza progressed up the stairs with the bag of roses over her shoulder and her umbrella in her right hand. It had only been a good two minutes when her movements started to go against her. She came to realize this as she walked up more of the steps, but it was too late for her foot happened to hover over a small rock.

The mage let out a grunt of pain as her foot faltered and her knee buckled onto the rough steps.

_'DAMNIT!' _

Her gaze wavered to her knee and saw that it was stabbed with a few sharp pieces of rock and peppered with wet sand. It bled lightly and left a stinging sensation on her kneecap. After a few moments she stood up abruptly trying to regain her composure, when a familiar voice called out her name.

"Erza?"

She turned immediately, recognizing the sound. Her eyes widened in shock as her eyes landed upon his surprised ones.

"JELLA-" Her words were cut off as a strong gust of cold wind came charging towards her.

"KYA!"

"ERZA!"

She toppled over the staircase immediately. The man watched her stumble over the edge as if the scene was in slow motion, and so Jellal ran as fast as he could in hopes of catching her. The fall was quick, and she had expected to land painfully onto the ground. Her heart raced at an impeccable speed from the turn of events. But the thing most surprising to her was the way her body was held up by a pair of warm arms rather than the wet sand.

He had caught her _just in time._

The umbrella she was formally holding landed a few feet away from them while her bag of roses opened and scattered over the sand. The red head stared up at her friend as the rain fell atop them furiously. What was he doing here?

He panted heavily bringing up Erza with every movement his chest took. "Don't _ever_ do that again…" He said in a gentle, but dead serious voice. Her scarlet hair was drenched in water along with her face. "Y-yeah…" she whispered back.

"What are you doing here?" Jellal questioned, still trying to catch whatever was left of his breath. He felt as if he had just experienced a heart attack, seeing her fall so unexpectedly like that.

All that came out of her was a few stutters. "I-I…"

She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that he had just _caught_ her.

Jellal stared into her brown eyes and blushed instantly upon realizing that their faces were so close in proximity to each other. His arms released her and she stumbled over the ground, dizzy.

"Are you-"

"Yeah," she cut off, flashing him a small smile. "I'm fine." She then wandered over to the mess she made and started to pick the roses up.

"Good," he replied, relieved.

A minute of awkward silence fell upon them. The question that was both ringing in their heads:

_'What is she doing here?'_

_'What is he doing here?'_

Erza gathered the remaining flowers and put them back into the drenched bag. "I didn't expect you to be here," she murmured as she stood up, slinging the bag over her shoulders. Jellal cleared his throat before he answered her.

"Uhm…I felt the need to visit and…honor those who…" They were barely whispers. He couldn't finish his sentence as a pang of guilt washed over him.

"And you?" He asked, trying to stray away from the reason.

She smiled sadly. "I wanted to visit Grandpa and…Simon."

He felt his throat go dry as he heard his name again. He shifted his eyes from hers and shut them tightly. He wasn't paying attention anymore to the things around him for his thoughts were getting carried away once again.

But that's when a cold hand suddenly cradled his cheek softly.

He gasped quietly and opened his eyes in shock, looking at the woman in front of him. "Erza?" His warm breath slightly touched her palm. The flush on his face was a deep scarlet, matching the color of her beautiful hair.

"Thank you for catching me," Erza whispered. She let go of his face and dropped it to her side.

There was nothing but complete silence as they both stared at eachother; she was relaxed and content while Jellal was completely flustered. But the one thing they did have in common: their hearts were _both_ fluttering in their chests wildly.

He was the first to break the silence.

"So you came here to…visit as well?" Jellal asked. His mouth was slightly open, and he could taste the water dripping onto his tongue. His blue hair was flattened due to the rainfall, and the only thing on him that was warm was his burning cheeks.

Erza nodded, gesturing to her bag. "Yes."

His eyes widened as he saw a flower petal peak through the cloth.

"I…I want to you show you s-something…" He told her with an idea in his head.

His hand suddenly grabbed hers, and she felt her face catch on fire. The azure haired wizard pulled her and led her across the wet beach. It took them a few minutes, but after going through a few trees and bushes, they both came across a little roof. It was a roof of thick leaves and branches, protecting the area around them from the rain. It was quite large and fit the both of them perfectly. Erza gazed in wonder.

"I made this," he pointed to a large, square like boulder next to them.

She shuffled her position to get a better look, and when her brown eyes met contact with what he was referring to, the sight made Erza gasp. She brought a hand to her mouth as she wandered her eyes around the wondrous view.

A garden of vibrant, colorful flowers resided over the ground around the boulder. Ranging from a bouquet of white chrysanthemums, to a garden of small cherry blossoms, the floor around the rock was covered with a variety of beauties.

"Jellal…" she whispered, her voice cracking slightly.

"It's a grave. I made it for not only him, but those who died here," he said, smiling a bit at her reaction.

His tender words brought tears to her eyes. "… How did you-"

"I came to the Tower early," he answered for her. "My boat was full of flowers when I came here. I had planned to do this for a while."

She was speechless, she didn't know how to react to this. Her heart pounded in her chest. Was it even possible for her feelings for him to increase that much? Her knees buckled weakly onto the ground, and she began to cry into her hands. "You really are…"

Jellal chuckled, and grinned. He crouched right next to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. His mind was free of his guilt at the moment and the only thing on his mind was her. After a few minutes Erza began to calm down, and she looked back at him tearfully. "You're amazing."

Jellal smiled at her in return, not saying a word.

And that's when she started to lean in closer to him.

What was she doing?

She didn't know. But he did. In a hurry, he picked up a small white flower nearest to them and held it up in her face while babbling randomly, effectively stopping her. "This one means truth. D-did you know that?"

She stared plainly at the chrysanthemum, surprised and amused at the same time. Erza laughed at his actions and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "No, I didn't."

"A-and this one," he picked up a yellow daffodil, his voice cracking out of his nerves. "Means respect!"

Soon after he explained all of the flowers that he had chosen for the grave, she opened up her black bag and brought out one of the scarlet red roses.

"Can you tell me what these mean?"

His stomach erupted in butterflies as he gazed at the red plant.

"U-uh, r-red roses? They m-mean r-r-romance and love…" Jellal explained timidly, looking away.

Erza blushed furiously.

_How ironic, _she thought.

"Well…I only picked them because I like roses," she confessed.

They spent the evening with friendly, and slightly awkward conversations. It was decided that they would depart in the morning and sleep under the roof because of the huge storm raging outside their little sanctuary.

Yet, that wasn't the case.

Both of them already knew that the rain was long gone, that a wonderful blue sky with a radiant rainbow and sun was already out. They were just too stubborn to leave because all that they wanted to do at the moment was spend time with each other.

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